LA Galaxy

LA Galaxy forward Gyasi Zardes is one of the hottest players in MLS and on Monday, he was named to MLSsoccer.com's Team of the Week.

Zardes scored twice in the Galaxy's 6-0 victory over the Colorado Rapids. In total, Zardes has 14 goals on the season and with his brace, he broke Diego Fagundez's single-season goal mark among MLS Homegrown Players.

Jamie Penedo and Panama suffered yet another disappointment in an important match.

Blas Perez and Roberto Nurse scored to put the Panamanians up 2-0, but saw their lead fall apart in the last 15 minutes as Costa Rica scored twice -- including a Celso Borges penalty kick goal -- to earn a point in the Group B match. Perez had a chance to save the evening for the Panamanians with a penalty kick attempt, but his effort was saved by goalkeeper Patrick Pemberton to preserve the draw for the Ticos and book them a ticket to 2015 CONCACAF Gold Cup.

Despite the draw, Panama still has an opportunity to qualify for the Copa CentroAmericana final in their Group B finale against Nicaragua on Sept. 10 in Houston. If Panama can score four goals against the Central American minnows, they'll qualify for the final in place of Costa Rica and have an opportunity to qualify for the Copa America Centenario.

Robbie Keane started and went 75 minutes as Republic of Ireland kicked off their Euro 2016 campaign with a dramatic 2-1 victory over Georgia on Sunday in Tbilisi.

Everton midfielder Aiden McGeady scored twice for the Irish, including one tally in the 89th minute to seal three points on the road for The Boys in Green. Tornike Okriashvili scored the lone goal for Georgia.

In the 23rd minute, Keane played setup man on McGeady’s opening strike as he fed James McCarthy who dished it to McGeady for the opening strike. With one minute left to play and the score nodded at 1-1 after Okriashvili’s equalizer, McGeady eluded a defender and fired a left-footed rocket that gave the Irish the vital road victory.

Keane will now rejoin Galaxy ahead of their match against the Montreal Impact on Wednesday.

The Irish return to Euro 2016 qualifying action next month when they host Group D rivals Gibraltar in Dublin on Oct. 11 before traveling to face reigning World Cup champions Germany in Gelsenkirchen three days later.

CARSON, Calif. –The LA Galaxy will be without defender Todd Dunivant for at least the next month.

The Galaxy's 33-year-old left back told reporters at training on Sunday that the he will be out for around six weeks with a left groin tear. Dunivant needed to be stretchered off the field in the 26th minute after suffering the injury during a collision with a Rapids attacker minutes earlier. The injury is the second long-term injury for Dunivant this season as he only recently returned from abdominal surgery that was needed to repair an abdominal tear suffered in April.

"I had the MRI yesterday. It was a pretty significant tear," said Dunivant on Sunday. "I can't walk straight. It sucks."

With Dunivant out, the Galaxy's outside back depth appears thin as veteran James Riley is only now returning from a left meniscus tear, and made his first gameday roster on Friday since suffering the injury in March. Meanwhile Robbie Rogers is continuing to deal with a left hamstring strain that forced him from the gameday squad against the Rapids.

“It’s been bizarre in that outside back is where we’ve had the most trouble [with injuries],” said Landon Donovan. “Guys have stepped in and they’ve done a great job. It’s been a bit a mish-mash of guys throughout the year, but through all of that, we still have the best defensive record in the league and we’re still playing well defensively.”

At training on Sunday, Rogers revealed that he will be traveling with the team to Montreal, but expects to only be limited to reserve duty against the Impact as he looks to return to full starting duty against the San Jose Earthquakes three days later.

For both Dunivant and Rogers, the injury-riddled 2014 campaign has been a frustrating one, but Rogers insists that the two will overcome—by any means necessary.

“Todd and I were saying that someone needs to walk the field with incense and use voodoo,” Rogers joked. “For whatever reason this year, our [outside] defenders have had trouble with injuries, but that’s just part of the job.

“We've been dealing with injuries all season to different guys, but the team has done a great job of stepping up,” Rogers added. “Our team isn’t just one player obviously.”

CARSON, Calif. -- It's safe to say that Colorado Rapids goalkeeper Joe Nasco had one of the worst nights of his career, and he did it all without playing a single minute.

Just 34 seconds into the game, Alan Gordon skirted past Nasco during a scramble in front of goal, but before he could get a shot off at an empty net, Nasco yanked down the forward. Despite the extremely early juncture of the game, referee Baldomero Toledo pointed to the spot and handed out a red card for Nasco which was the quickest red card in league history.

Gyasi [Zardes] and [Alan] Gordon made great runs across the box and Todd [Dunivant] put in a great cross in front of the goal and when you do that, good things happen," said Landon Donovan. "Gordon did a good job to get his feet on it and was going to score and got pulled down, so that’s part of the game and it’s unfortunate for them."

Prior to Nasco's foible, the previous holder of the dubious distinction was former New York Red Bulls defender Carlos Johnson, who was sent off in the second minute of a match with the then-Kansas City Wizards back on April 23, 2009.

Although Nasco will likely have to carry the distinction for some time, he got little sympathy from the home side.

"If the goalkeeper doesn’t do that, then they don’t get the red card," said defender Omar Gonzalez. "That’s the way the game is played, those are the rules. It’s tough that’s the way it went down, but that had to happen."

LA Galaxy Homegrown Bradford Jamieson IV scored two goals as the U.S. Under-20's rallied to a 3-2 win past the reserve side of Argentine club Defensa y Justicia.

The Argentines opened up the match by putting the Americans behind 2-0 in the opening 15 minutes but Jamieson started the comeback with his first goal for the U.S. U-20 team in 17th minute of play.

Former Galaxy Academy attacker Paul Arriola equalized for the U.S. in the 35th minute. But it was Jamieson who notched the game winner when he finished a Romain Gall pass to give Tab Ramos' squad the victory.

The U.S. U-20's end their trip to Argentina with a match against the Argentina U-20's on Sept. 9.

CARSON, Calif. -- The U.S. National Team buzz surrounding Gyasi Zardes is at a fever pitch and now the striker's LA Galaxy teammate Landon Donovan is getting into the conversation.

Zardes scored twice during the Galaxy's 6-0 rout of the Colorado Rapids on Friday night to continue his impressive streak of 17 goals in 18 games in all competitions this summer. With 14 goals in his sophomore season in MLS, Zardes now holds the highest single-season total for an MLS Homegrown Player breaking the record previous held New England Revolution's Diego Fagundez who scored 13 goals last year.

As Zardes continues to score, the national team chatter will continue to intensify, but to have the seal of approval from Donovan is likely to aid the striker's case for the USMNT.

"He deserves everything he has got; success is not an accident. People think you’re just born a certain way and everything either comes to you or doesn’t and it’s not true," said Donovan. "Last year, we saw the other side of that where he wasn’t quite there yet. He put in a lot of work last year and a lot of work this year and it’s starting to pay off. I would be pretty shocked if he’s not called into the U.S. [Men’s National] Team soon.”

Throughout Zardes' impressive performance against the Rapids, the 22-year-old displayed not only his trademark speed, but also a variety of tricks learned from players like Robbie Keane and Landon Donovan. Whether it was Keane’s ability make a dummy run and set up a chance for a teammate or Donovan-esque turn and shoot, Zardes showcased that he’s steadily adding tricks to his growing arsenal of offensive moves.

And as he displays some of their trademark moves on the field, Zardes credits the role that Keane and Donovan have played in his maturation.

“My teammates are helping me. All these guys are older than me and I’m just trying to learn as much as I can from them," Zardes said. “Landon is a phenomenal player and I’m just trying to learn as much as I can from him. As you can see in the recent games, he’s the one giving me all my assists and I’m just trying to build off that as much as I can from these guys because they’ve played professional soccer longer than I have.”

ARENA: "We think the world of AJ [DeLaGarza] and his family. It’s a difficult moment, so our thoughts are definitely with them. It was emotional. He’s a person that we all care about. He’s such a great person. Him and his wife. It’s awful difficult to be in that position. We feel his pain, and we will be as supportive as we can be for AJ and his family. Certainly, our thoughts were with him tonight. It’s certainly it was a game we wanted to win for him."

(On Baggio Husidic's performance...)

ARENA: Very good game. Baggio is a very good player. He’s played very well over the past couple of weeks. Those were big goals tonight.

(On the defensive injuries...)

ARENA: Our injuries this year have really been in the back. We are just hanging on with bodies right now. We are getting James ready, but it’s still a little early for him. We wish we would have been able to get him some Galaxy II games, but it’s past the deadline to get him on the roster. We are just going to have to work him in through training and hopefully some game time

CARSON, Calif. -- The LA Galaxy are in mourning after the loss of A.J. DeLaGarza's newborn son and club president Chris Klein insists that the team will continue to support him and his family in their time of need.

Klein spoke to reporters ahead of the Galaxy's match with the Colorado Rapids on the ways in which the team was honoring Luca.

(On when A.J. will return to the field...)

KLEIN: It’s entirely up to him, kind of the speed with what he does. Bruce has been great with him and defers to him with whatever he’s comfortable doing.

(On how A.J. is doing...)

KLEIN: I don’t know that I could put myself in his shoes. And know what it is that he and Megan were going through and have been going through, not only last week but the last couple months. AJ is a very tough kid, but you can’t prepare yourself for going through something like this. All we could do is come around him as his extended family and support him as best as we could.

AJ was at training this week, through this has been a release for him to come and be around the guys. This week, we’ve had people talking to him consistently.

(On Rapids coach Pablo Mastroeni wearing the armband...)

KLEIN: It’s not only Pablo but to see the support from players, from teams in our sport and other sports to se the reaction and how other people set everything else aside and come to the support of one family. It’s been incredible. I don’t know that AJ has seen all of it, but even to sit and look at it all has been something pretty cool. Pablo is part of our family as well, and AJ is someone that everyone likes. To have that is pretty amazing.

(On if the match is an emotional one...)

KLEIN: It is. Anytime you have a teammate that’s going through something it’s emotional, but to have someone like AJ who has been a part of us for so long and to have this group that’s so close is something you can’t describe. The guys are going to be emotional. You saw last week and I think you’ll see it again tonight.

(On the plan to honor DeLaGarza with cheers at the 20 minute mark...)

KLEIN: whose idea I don’t know. It is cool. Things just started to come out. We don’t have the right words to say, but anything we can do that our supporters and fans can do to support AJ and his family.